HalfLife Citizen 204
by Armquest 23
Summary: Half-Life in the eyes of a citizen... This is gonna be stereotypically fun.
1. Chapter 1

**Half Life: Citizen 204**

**Based off of Valve's masterpiece, Half-Life**

My name is Preston, to make this simple; I have been living in a world of hate and violence. Ever since that goddamn experiment in Black Mesa went wrong, the world has never been the same. Let's start from the beginning of it all; I was in my room, watching the news, when a report came on about this top secret research project going wrong being unveiled to the public. They should've kept it secret in my point of view. Even if the place flubbed up, it'd make it a lot less scary for everyone. (Well… until I knew what was happening.) The news reporter put on some kind of footage of the main chamber. I couldn't make out most any of the words that over-enthusiastic reporter was babbling on about, but I understood some of it. She mainly said stuff about a scientist group seeking for alien life in alternate dimensions. (That's at least what I thought.) The two words that stuck out were Xen and Lambda… It was so odd at the time. He was going to use this huge, expensive-looking contraption to get to his "objective". The scientist seemed familiar to me; his name was Gordon Freeman. After endless minutes with the reporter's agonizing yapping, it was happening. I could almost see the scientists on their knees praying, "Please work, please, don't be bad…" My heart started to race, sweating and praying for the same, as the ominous person in a weird suit inched closer and closer to the beam of blinding light. Anticlimactically, as the scientist's cart connected with the light, "BOOM" I wait to see if that was supposed to happen… "BANG" Another explosion sounds. Just then, my heart sank, I knew something was wrong. A person on the intercom yelled, "Get away from the stream, Gordon, I'm going to do an emergency shutdown… What? It's-it's not shutting down, it-. Static. Nothing but static on the screen and the audio of the footage. Millions of horrified people including me were just standing frozen in complete and utter horror. Nobody, even the military knew what to do. I tell myself, "What kind of crap did we just get ourselves into…"

There I stood, worrying about friends and family… "What the heck am I going to do…?" I remain silent for the rest of the day; I take a fake sick day from work. The rumors were all true about the cataclysm effect. I worked part-time in Black Mesa as a security officer. The secrets my best friend would sneak to me during lunch hour were true. I was stuffing my face with doughnuts and sipping coffee when all the things he would tell me were true. I would laugh at him! I thought he was honestly joking! I was in a freaking death trap! I lay in my bed teary-eyed, praying for my life. The rumors were that if the experiment failed, the alien life would have complete access to our dimension! The military is holding an evacuation today. Hopefully, it's enough to keep me and my family safe. I know I'm being dark and pessimistic right now, but this story will lighten up soon. I hope…

**Chapter 3: **I drive worriedly in my station wagon to a large military compound with a sinister-looking sign; "Sigma-Alpha" As I pass by the warning signs and my ignorance soon sinks into silent anxiety. As I arrived, all of the hope had been stripped from my soul… I had to give up my car; possessions, money, my credit and debit cards, and even the clothes on my back were replaced by a dull, blue suit reading, "CITIZEN 204". "Is this really the US military?" I mutter to myself. We are herded like animals to the helipad for… well… I really never knew why we were there. The entire din of worried people had abruptly stopped as a tall, muscular figure creeps out from one of the sheds. I look up to see the creature; it was a person with a gleaming full-face gas mask thing on its face and a black and white tactical vest gazing down at me. Those two, little, glass eyelets look at you as if looking into your very soul. It looks down at me, studying my every feature. As if it's never seen a person before. It sluggishly paces around me. I say one word and the thing whips out this huge stick from its belt. A flash goes off and I see the stick explode with light. It somehow became electrified and an obvious beating tool. As it whips the stick near my face, I completely black out, and the only thing I remembered was the thing barking orders to each of the soldiers.

**Chapter 4: **I start to hear and see again; the figure that attacked me was dragging across the floor to somewhere. Everything's a blur and all I hear is white noise… What did I do to deserve this? I only tried to say hello to the thing and it attacked me! As my sight and hearing clears up, the dragging stops. Before I could think, I was shoved to the ground. The figure barks, "Get up". I comply-slowly. My face is throbbing out of control, my ears are still ringing like some kind of psychological torture, and I yearn for an explanation. The figure points to a rack of suitcases and says, "Take one." As if it's already ominous enough, a man in a navy blue suit strolls down to take a suitcase. "Who are you?" I said. Then, I start to hear blaring squeals in my ears. I start to hear voices whispering, "Freeman… One Free Man… Xen…" The man says nothing back and walks away. Before the noise stopped, I get a flash of an orange symbol on my arm. It's a roman letter… As soon as I see it the thing fades. That man looked so ominous, but gives me thoughts of safety running through my head. "How did you get that so mark?" the thing in the mask asks. "What do you mean?" I said. I say, trying not to get into more crap then I'm already in. "Never mind," the thing says. A train pulls up behind me and opens its doors. Not even the train looks human; it has a light on top and a series of black, rectangular shapes as a body. The thing says, "Get on and wait." I comply with reasons of terror. Minutes pass and noting happens. Eventually, more people are dragged onto the train with me. Soon enough, the train is filled with identity-stripped civilians. The doors slam and the train starts to lurch forward.


	2. Chapter 2

The awkwardness of what just happened to them had soon ended when the train hit its top speed. A man sitting next to me says, "Hey… you know what's going on?" "No idea, man," I said as I turned to him. He was white and had a black crew cut with hazel eyes. His uniform reads, Citizen 625. His facial expression showed toughness, but a hint of silent, hidden fear. "So, where are you from?" he said. "I live way far away, in Tulsa," I said. The man said, "I live here, in the city's downtown. My name's Ken, but most people call me Kenny." "Hi, Kenny," I said, "I'm Preston." Minutes of conversation turn into hours, laughing, sympathy, I begin to like Kenny. Before I know it, the hurt and depression turns into a glimmer of hope. I have a feeling that friends are going to be important on the road ahead. The train screeches to a halt, and the doors fly open. I am greeted by familiar figures; the identity-less figures with gas-masks. I hear a familiar voice speaking on a monitor, "Welcome to City 14. You have chosen or been chosen to be relocated to our newest urban center. Your administrator is Dr. Ohashi. Welcome to City 14… You'll be safe here…" "That's Wallace talking on the monitor!" I said. "Who-what?" said Kenny. "I'll explain later," I said. Dr. Wallace Breen was the administrator of Black Mesa. He's the reason this all happened. He was the one who gave the go order. We were ordered to line up and take one ration pack from this alien-looking machine. I noticed that daylight was fading. The wait lasted forever, my feet started to throb from standing too long. The sun had disappeared into the horizon and the station had done dark, only a few floodlights illuminated it. Finally, I received my ration pack and sat down on a bench to wait for Kenny. As soon as all of us got our rations, we were assigned apartment blocks. Luckily, Kenny and I got the same apartment; 546-A. Kenny and we soon find ourselves in a dark, but still alive, city filled with signs and propaganda. Sounds of police radios, planes, and trains fill the air. "We'd better get going," Kenny said. Walking down the street, we see gas mask people, other citizens, and huge monitors seeming to overhang the city. As we arrive at our rooms, (Mine is next door to Kenny's) we handshake and head into the rooms. I come in to see a bed, a drawer, a bathroom, closet, and table. I put away the suitcase and ration and drift to sleep. I had just survived my first day in City 14.

I slowly open my eyes, awaking to a spark of curiosity. I wonder what was in the suitcase. Wait a second... crap! I forgot to get one! That man distracted me so much, I forgot! At least the ration pack had good stuff in it. It had soap, shampoo, food and water, toothpaste, a toothbrush, and first aid. So far, I was pretty well-stocked. After taking a shower, brushing my teeth, etc, etc. I hear a faint knocking on my door; it was Kenny. "Hey, I just wanted to warn you, the metro police are searching this block," he said. "The gas mask guys?" I said. "Yeah, someone in this block is a suspect of murdering a metro cop," Kenny said worriedly. We both start to hear footsteps coming up the stairs. We both get back in our rooms and wait for a cop to come barging in. The wait seems endless, fear runs throughout me. "Back against the wall, now!" a cop shouts. I nearly jump out of my skin, it startled me so much. The cop ties me up and throws me against the wall. He pats me down and searches the room, looking for weapons. He finds nothing, but I hear I familiar sound, the stunstick. "Initiating punishment level 1," the cops says in the radio, and my mind goes black.

I come to and see everyone lined up, back to the wall, awaiting orders including me. "Does anyone recognize this pistol?" a cop says. His suit is different from the others; he has an odd tribal design on his suit, a black mask, and glowing blue specs on the respirators. He looked like something of importance. "The first one to tell us gets to go back first," the cop said. Still, utter silence brings fear into my head. I think, please, someone just fess up! The cop fires his pistol at me and nearly misses my head. The shot echoes through the building and makes my ears ring. "Fess up now or he gets it!" the cop yells, "3… 2…" Oh, god… I don't want to die! Holding tears back, time stands still. Someone finally says, "I know who owns a pistol like that." The greatest feeling of relief comes over me. "Everyone is excused when untied. Except for you, citizen 544," the cop exclaimed. I was one second away from being shot straight in the head. After a couple of hours, Kenny comes in to see how I was doing. "Hey, you doing okay?" he says. "Yeah… just shaken up a bit," I answer. Being courteous, he changes the subject. "So, who's this Wallace guy you were talking about?" he asked. "Oh, yes… you know what Black Mesa is, right?" I began. "Yeah, I saw the news report," he said. "Well, I used to work there part-time as a security guard. My friend, during lunch would tell me secrets about this huge cataclysm effect if anything went wrong. Of course, I never believed him. Well… until now. Our administrator was Dr. Wallace Breen; he gave the go order to start the experiments. Even on days when we had technical problems, he would run the most potentially dangerous experiments," I explained. "So, basically, he started this whole thing," Kenny said, "We need to put this guy to justice." "I don't think just two guys ca stop him," I said. "You're right…" he said disappointedly. "Well, I'll see you later," he said walking out of my door. The question still buzzes, what has this world come to?


End file.
